February 21, 2019

What is Amazon AMS? Amazon Advertising and the Advertising Console

For most sellers, advertising will inevitably make up a large part of their overall strategy. But it can be difficult to know where to start. If you’re selling on Amazon, it’s likely that you’ll soon need to become familiar with Amazon AMS.

AMS stands for Amazon Marketing Services. In September 2018, the names Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP), Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) and Amazon Media Group (AMG) were retired. They were then reintroduced under the umbrella ‘Amazon Advertising.’

The Amazon Marketing Services account became the Advertising Console, however many still refer to the platform as AMS, so we’ll use that name in this article.

The Amazon algorithm rewards clicks and sales with higher search rankings. For this reason, it can be difficult for new products to gain any traction when they’re first released. The answer? Amazon AMS.

Amazon AMS was launched in 2012, as a self-service advertising solution for sellers. Basically, it gives you complete control over how much you’re spending on your ads, and who’s most likely to see them. This is a pay-per-click (PPC) platform, offering you three options: Product Display ads, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Products. You can use these ads to send customers to a custom landing page or product detail page within Amazon.

Here’s a brief overview of these options:

Sponsored products

These ads are either keyword-driven or content-driven and you'll see them on the right-hand side and the top and bottom of the search results. You can choose either Manual Targeting or Automatic Targeting for these ads.

Automatic Targeting uses Amazon’s algorithms to select an ad group based on conversion history and content. Manual Targeting allows you to choose the best keywords for your products.

Sponsored brands

These ads, previously know as headline search ads, are also keyword-driven, and you’ll see them at the very top of the search results. The goal is to convert consumers who are at the very beginning of the buyer’s journey.

These ads look like a banner, and they’ll show up when someone searches with a keyword that matches your campaign.

Product Display Ads

Product Display Ads are an excellent option if you plan to target your competitors and attract their customers to your products instead.

These can be used as a ‘last chance’ for a consumer to check out your product since they’re shown on specific product pages right before they click ‘add to cart.’

These ads give you a ton of insights, including clicks, spend, total sales, impressions, and your advertising cost of sale.

Using Amazon AMS

To get started with Amazon AMS, you’ll first need to sign into Amazon Advertising. From there, you can choose which of the above ad types are best for your products.

Any advertising campaign should begin with an in-depth knowledge of your target audience. That way, you’ll know where to start when it comes to your keywords and targeting. It can be easy to whittle down your marketing budget with AMS, which is why it’s important to have a solid strategy and constantly tweak your ads based on their effectiveness.

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